Fable - Ask Fire on the Horizon

[Aidenzak]

"That's a sweet sentiment." He states in response to her words, chuckling a little. He gestures to the deer over the fire, and hands her his knife. "Meat should be done if you want to get yourself some." He then yawns, leaning back against the pole that holds up the tent. "I have some spare blankets in my bag over there, if you want to get some and mark yerself comfortable. You're free to stick around if ya want." She doesn't seem to have anywhere else to go. "I'll pick up some extra camping supplies for you at the next city. We'll stay at the inn a few days and get some rest in some real beds, restock on food. I'll see if I can find you a horse as well, eh?"

Reaching into his bag, he pulls out a bandage and takes her wrist, pulling it towards him carefully. He begins gently wrapping her hand, making sure it's secure to reduce chances of infection. "I'll need to show you have to fight properly, to keep you from gettin yerself hurt like this. Ever thought about learning the way of the sword? Or are you the dagger sort? I bet you could do well with a scimitar, or a katana if you wanna get fancy. What do ya say, wanna do some weapon shopping once we get to the city? Probably some clothe shoppin too." Hahnah is a strange friend to have, for certain, but one he'll be happy to have around.

Hahnah

 

[Hahnah]

Hahnah glanced to the deer meat above the fire. Glanced to the knife in Alden's hand. She was not deft with tools such as those. But she took it. Held it awkwardly. Tried to cut away a chunk of the deer meat on the spit but was doing so with the blunt edge of the knife. After a few seconds she realized it, turned the knife around in her hand, and worked at sawing free a portion of the meat. Once done she sat back down on the blanket and set the knife down and held in her hands a chunk of cooked meat.

Cooked meat. The last time she had eaten meat that was cooked was with her caretakers. They did not eat meat "raw," as it was called. Hahnah usually did. She had no trouble with it. But cooked was good as well.

I have some spare blankets in my bag over there, if you want to get some and mark yerself comfortable. You're free to stick around if ya want.

Hahnah nodded as she ate and chewed. Made serenely happy merely from the simple satiation of her hunger, let alone the promise of more blankets and offer to stay at Alden's camp through the night.

Her demeanor changed when Alden said the word city though. She stopped chewing for a second. Started again, but slower. That earlier contentedness gave way to a quiet dread.

She did finish her meal before Alden secured the bandage and took the wrist of her injured hand. She let him; stayed silent save for a wince or two. When he was done, she pulled back her hand and looked at both sides of it, looked with admiration at the bandage he'd wrapped about her injury. Some of that dread went away, and she smiled lightly. If he had been injured, she would do the same for him.

Alden spoke. Said he needed to show her how to fight properly, and made mention of several types of weapons. And made mention of a city again.

Hahnah slid back off of her heels to sit on her rear. Drawing up her knees to her chin and wrapping her arms around her legs. And she said in a distant way, "Cities are frightening."

She looked at the campfire. The color of her eyes completely masking the orange reflection of it in them. Pillars of smoke still rose in Elyr-Morath, clear to see in the last light of evening and from the illumination of the fires yet to be extinguished.

"I have not been to a city, but even this town was frightening. I do not like it when there are too many people. I do not know which ones to trust and which ones to not trust."

She did not wish it to be this way, but it was unfortunately this way. Oddly, there was a surety in seeing a human that did not exist with seeing an elf. An elf could be welcoming or stiffly receptive or suspicious or outright fearful and aggressive. Yes, oddly, with humans Hahnah always knew what to do.

Weapon shopping, clothes shopping, she hadn't dismissed what Alden had said. But the thought of going into a city took precedence, and demanded to be addressed first.

Hahnah looked from the fire to Alden. Making a realization that was clearly evident, but one so outside her realm of experience that she had a difficult time grasping it nonetheless. Alden was allowed into cities. Just allowed. As simple as that. Tieflings were not altogether shunned.

She asked, still with a measure of wondrous disbelief, "Are you allowed to walk in a city, Aldenaxk? Are you allowed to do so freely? Are you allowed to do so without Hunters coming after you? Is it because you wear clothes?"

Aldenaxk Drazukel

 

[Aidenzak]

"I suppose if you've never been in a city, the concept is quite intimidating, aye." Alden nods. "I myself grew up in a city. You learn who to avoid and who to talk to when the city is your home." The tiefling looks to her with a raised brow. "Aye, I can walk in a city unimpeded, some don't like that I'm there, but no one attempts to kill me when I walk in." He shrugs. "Never been hunted by hunters. Hunters never go after tieflings." He reaches out to ruffle her hair again. "Just stick to me when we go to the city, aye? No hunters will touch ye."

"I'll make sure hunters never come after you again." He nods, taking the knife she had used to skillfully carve a leg off the deer before moving to sit down beside her and take a large bite out of the thigh. "Don't worry about who to trust and who not to trust in the city. Stick with me and I'll teach you." He grins widely, showing those incisors of his. He can tell, though she looks old, in terms of mind, she is still but a child. "I can teach you a lot, if you want to stick around. I can show you the non intimidatin parts of the city. Not to mention, the food is much better than anything I can cook. Stews and curries are my favorite."

Hahnah

 

[Hahnah]

He was knowledgeable. Accustomed to the city as she was accustomed to the wilds of Falwood. The city was simply a vastly different environment--intimidating, as Alden had said. Freedom of movement was restricted by walls and buildings and doors, there were many living things in so compact a space, and the smells and noises were overwhelming. These things Hahnah all assumed; this, by extrapolating out the conditions of villages and towns. Her ranger caretakers had not liked cities either, and Hahnah took after them.

Some wouldn't like that Alden was there, if he went to a city. Hahnah suspected a similar regarding for herself.

I'll make sure hunters never come after you again.

Her eyes widened just so, and she raised the curled fingers of a loose fist to her chest--touched by the sentiment. She did not fear the Hunters, and she took satisfaction in killing them, but she did know that they were all dangerous and not to be underestimated. It felt good that Alden would watch out for them with her. Good in the way that brought calm and warmth to her heart--a feeling she missed from her past.

Hahnah thought for a moment. Her head and eyes moving in slow and slight ways with each consideration that crossed her mind. Then she looked back up to Alden. Said, "I will be frightened. But I will go to the city. I will learn what you have to teach."

She smiled, a tiny and delicate little thing, like the first flicker of flame in the hearth of a home. "I trust you."

This, too, something she truly missed from her past.

Aldenaxk Drazukel

 

[Aidenzak]

Alden rips another bite out of the deer's leg he's eating on. "Probably about time we both got some rest, eh?" He chuckles. "I know a city you'll enjoy. It was started by a tieflin. Place by the name of Tolelajara. Just happens to be the closest city. We can start headin that way tomorrow. I'll start showin ya how to camp, and how to cook yer food, how to start a fire, all that stuff. It's pretty important for survival."

He looks to her with a smile once again, returning the smile she gives him. He playfully pokes her on the nose. "You get some sleep, yea? I'll dispose of the parts of the deer we didn't eat. You go ahead and go to bed. You'll need your rest for the trip tomorrow." He pulls a few blankets out of his bag, holding them out to her. "Tent's big enough for the both of us, but we'll get you your own in town."

Hahnah

 

[Hahnah]

"Tol...Tolala...Tolelajara," Hahnah said, figuring out how to pronounce the name of the city as she had with Alden's own name.

How to camp. How to cook her food. How to start a fire. These were all things she had been shown by her ranger caretakers. Things that had slowly been abandoned in the wake of their slaying. In the time from then until now she had become more primal in her ways. Taking after the creatures which were called monsters, shunned by elves and humans alike, yet in whose company she found the barest minimum of acceptance--cold, indifferent toleration.

Hahnah's eyes watched the advance of Alden's finger and its retreat after he poked her nose. She didn't seem bothered by it, but likewise didn't know much of what to make of it. Yet it was a gesture that hearkened back to Kylindrielle, and to a lesser extent Elurdrith. Similar in manner.

She accepted the blankets offered to her--these she did miss. And she said, "I will go to sleep."

Hahnah glanced to his tent. Poked her way face-first through the flap. Crouched down and rolled out one of the blankets she had been given. Sat on top of it. Wrapped herself up in a tight bundle with the other blankets, such that only her head stuck out from the cocoon she had fashioned. Sat this way so wrapped and waited. Waited specifically until Alden himself entered the tent. Her eyes glowed faintly in the dark inside, globes of orange against the oval backdrop of red.

She asked him, "Even if I get my own tent from the city, will I still be able to sleep in this tent with you?"

Aldenaxk Drazukel

 

[Aidenzak]

Alden takes a bit to get the deer body away from camp. Can't have any bears or wolves coming to scrounge around after all. He's not gone for too long though. Once back at the camp, he takes some time to snuff out the fire using a bucket of water. She'd soon see him enter the tent again. Though he's abandoned all his layers of leather armor and chainmail. Once in the tent, he sits down, taking what seems to be some form of cigarette out of his pack. He snaps the fingers on his left hands, summoning up a small flame, which he uses to light the cigarette before placing it between his teeth. The tiefling looks up at the night sky through the tent flap he left open so the smoke wouldn't gather up in the tent. Those grey eyes turn back to see Hahnah, and he smiles warmly. "It's some herbs. Inhalin it helps with achin bones. You get that when you're as big as I am." He chuckles. Once he gets his fill of the herbs, he tosses the cigarette out of the tent, and shuts the flap before laying down on the pallet across from her. When she asks him that question, he raises a brow. "If ya need, aye. I don't mind."

Hahnah

 

[Hahnah]

That was something she had observed. Her caretakers had not done so, but others sometimes lit things on fire and put them in their mouths, breathed in and exhaled the smoke of those things. Alden said that the oblong object had herbs in it. That it helped with his bones. She had not known. Now she did. Such knowledge could be useful later.

And he said yes, she could continue to sleep in this tent as they traveled together. And she very much preferred it this way. She had no need for a tent in her years spent alone--the shelter of one unnecessary to her. She slept as the animals and the monsters of Falwood slept, enduring the nights of calm and nights of storms as they came, summers of heat and winters of cold as the seasons changed. It was uncomfortable when compared to what she had known, but it did not bother her. What bothered her was the lack of something else. A lack addressed by sleeping in Alden's tent.

"Thank you," she said. Then she closed her eyes--the orange and the red of them winking out and disappearing in the dark--and lay down flat and added, "Good night, Aldenaxk."

* * * * *​

In the dead of night, in that perfect valley of dark equally removed from the prior evening's last light and the coming morning's first glimmer, Hahnah had awakened.

She sat up quietly. Clasped her hands inside the cocoon of blankets she'd wrapped about herself. Tilted her head skyward and whispered.

"Have I done well?"

She was thinking of Elyr-Morath.

"Have I done well?"

Thinking of the humans she had slain in the burning town.

"Have I done well?"

She hoped as she always hoped for an answer. None came. But that was okay. She could continue to try and do well. And if she did enough good, she trusted with all her heart that her prayers would one day be answered.

But for now, she settled back down on the blanket laid flat on the ground. Snuggled herself into comfort again. Then shut her eyes and fell asleep within the next few minutes.

* * * * *​

Peacefully she slept, even as the morning came. Her mouth slightly open, and from it tiny, near inaudible whistles of breath.

Aldenaxk Drazukel